Dog shelter in Woodland Park seeks to find homes for the abandoned

WOODLAND PARK - If you hear barking coming from a small warehouse next to the Passaic River just off of McBride Avenue, it's likely coming from a local dog shelter that last week received site plan approval from the Board of Adjustment.

Bommer, a 9-month-old terrier, shown with Michael Ripinsky, owner of NOLA Furry Friends, a dog shelter in Woodland Park, is up for adoption. The shelter last week received site plan approval from the Board of Adjustment and continues its work finding homes for homeless pups.

The owner, 48-year-old Michael Ripinsky, drove a soda delivery truck in Brooklyn for two decades, but gave up the delivery franchise in order to dedicate himself to a cause that is close to his heart - rescuing dogs, large and small.

"I did my Pepsi route for 20 years, but it got stale. What was I doing? What was my life?" he asked.

Ripinsky said he had always worked with animal rescue groups and would frequently rescue dogs that he himself found, most of them in Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Red Hook neighborhood.

"I used to find the dogs on the side of the road and pick them up," he said. "They're called throw-away dogs." Ripinsky said people would often breed dogs and then throw them out into the street when they could no longer produce a litter.

He brought his good intentions to New Orleans, La., and purchased an animal shelter. "The week I moved down there, I found a shelter," he said. "The place was going out of business, and I fixed it up."

He thrived there for several years building the shelter called NOLA Furry Friends, but the animal rescue groups up north called him back, and in 2012, he opened shop in Woodland Park.

He used the same shelter name, and would eventually team up with Zani's Furry Friends, a New York City based rescue group that finds homes for dogs and cats from city animal control shelters, where they are likely to be euthanized.

Zani's has no shelter so Ripinsky is among those who provide a transitional place for the dogs and helps find permanent homes for them, many in North Jersey, where he said, more spacious homes and yards can accommodate the pets.

"We're giving back," he said. "That's the whole idea of the program - rescuing animals."

During an interview outside of the shelter on Willow Way last week, Ripinsky said he houses about 12 dogs in the shelter at any given time and that they cycle in and out as he finds homes for them, something he does by holding adoption events at Corrado's Pet Market in Clifton and various places, where he drives the dogs out in a van and puts red vests on the dogs that read "Adopt Me."

Last year alone he adopted out just over 100 dogs.

Ripinsky prides himself on finding the right homes for the right dogs and said that he will even set up a foster system whereby a family can see if a particular dog is a good fit.

"It's so important you put the right dogs with the right people. You can't put a puppy or a Jack Russell Terrier with an elderly person," he said, explaining that such canines are generally too energetic.

Currently a one-man-band at the shelter in Woodland Park, Ripinsky hopes to recruit volunteers to help him with his enterprise.

"We're looking for young people who want to give back, do community service," he said. "We're also looking for older people who are retired."

Ripinsky receives dog food and pet shelter materials from Rock & Rawhide, a non-profit that donates to animal shelters, but funds most of the venture himself. He makes money by driving a school bus for special needs children from Clifton to Nutley.

Ripinsky says his goal in life is to give back to the greater good. "We're doing our little part," he said. "To me, it costs a lot of money, but it's worth it."

To learn more about volunteering or adopting go to www.zanisfurryfriends.org.